When it comes to 'fast noodles', many people think of instant noodles. It used to be the savior of our late night hunger. But as consumers' demands for dietary health gradually increase, it is difficult to get rid of the destiny of instant noodles that are considered 'fried, unhealthy'.

Since 2013, sales of instant noodles in China have started to decline. According to instant noodle dealers, the cost of a box of 24 bags of instant noodles is 2 yuan per pack. The price is 2.5 yuan per pack, and the cost is only a few cents. In the case of declining sales, the products often do not make money, or even lose money. In order to make up for the vacancy in the instant noodle market, a new type of instant noodles appeared - freeze-dried noodles.

Instant noodles

The lyophilized surface is different from the ordinary instant noodles. It does not have the process of frying. Instead, the fresh noodles, soup and vegetables are frozen by vacuum freeze-drying technology, and then dehydrated and dried in a vacuum environment of minus 30 ° C. Vacuum freeze drying can be used. The machine is produced. The equipment combines the refrigeration system, the vacuum system, and the dehumidification system. The sublimation can remove moisture from the frozen biological product. The process of freeze-drying is called freeze-drying. The freeze-dried surface is like other instant noodles. , just re-add water, you can restore the original appearance, and the color, fragrance, taste is basically unchanged.

It is because the freeze-dried surface adopts vacuum freeze-drying technology, and the physicochemical structure of the food is not changed by high temperature, so its nutrients are not lost, and it is basically equal to fresh food. In addition, the dehydration rate of up to 95% makes the shelf life of food greatly extended. It can be stored in a normal temperature environment for more than five years without destroying the packaging. It is understood that this healthy freeze-dried noodle has become an instant noodle that can be sold on motor trains in May 2017.

It can be seen that vacuum freeze-drying technology can not only maintain the freshness and nutrition of food, but also prolong the shelf life of food. In addition to freeze-dried noodles, other products are included in the field of freeze-dried food:

Freeze-dried fruit, which is a relatively common food, common freeze-dried red dates, pineapple, mango, durian, etc.; freeze-dried pet food, freeze-dried pet food is called high-end product category abroad, is relatively scarce in China, There are pet companies to introduce freeze-dried raw meat and freeze-dried dog food; freeze-dried cold-collected instant coffee, cold-collected coffee was first launched by Starbucks, and has been popular in the domestic market in the past two years. It has become the main force of summer coffee revenue; Dry food, a Fujian company launched probiotic yoghurt soluble beans, online sales exceeded 100,000, welcomed by consumers, children's health food is a more demanding product direction, more focused and more subdivided. Food also includes milk beans, molar snacks, etc.

Although many domestic enterprises have introduced a variety of freeze-dried foods, the market size and development speed of China's freeze-dried food industry lags behind that of foreign countries. This is related to the following aspects. First, we can see from the above product analysis that lyophilization Technology is a relatively high-end food production process, product prices are difficult to meet the consumption level of ordinary consumers; secondly, China's freeze-dried foods produce more fruit and vegetable products for export, focus on foreign markets, and less investment in the domestic market; Consumers are not used to the taste of certain freeze-dried foods.

From the analysis of the reasons, it can be seen that the development limitation of the freeze-dried food industry is not the backwardness of technology, because many enterprises in China have developed vacuum freeze dryers to produce freeze-dried fruits and vegetables for export abroad. The difficulty lies in the development of the domestic market. The freeze-dried food market cannot yet become a popular market. Whether it is a new company that has entered the field for the first time or a mature company, the starting point is to start with product characteristics and product demand, but also focus on product innovation, branding and marketing. .